


The Strongest Host in the World

by MidlightSpring



Category: Original Work
Genre: Action/Adventure, Comedy, Crossdressing, Funny, Humor, Light Novel, Manga & Anime, Multi, Original Character(s), Original Fiction, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-28
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:27:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 12,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25567405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MidlightSpring/pseuds/MidlightSpring
Summary: A young yakuza gang member having an existential crisis about his future, bumps into an unexpected person to help discover his new passion as a nightclub host!With the help of his day criminal family and his night host coworkers, this super strength nightclub host's apprentice is navigating his way to become not really the best, but the most strongest host in the world!





	1. Part 1

This was the first time I ever felt this confused about myself.

I never knew I could be this confused on what I wanted to do. But ever since I saw him, I knew that I was doing something completely wrong. This was not the path I was destined to be on. I was meant to be on the shining path that he stood on. I knew that this was my destiny.

Throwing myself into front of him, I dropped my body into a deep bow and slammed my forehead into the muddy ground. Even with some mud splashed into my mouth, I continued to say the words that I've been looking for my entire life.

"PLEASE, MAKE ME YOUR APPRENTICE!"

Thug, mafia, gangster. I've been called all kinds of names. For almost all I could remember, my whole life has revolved around being the outcast of society. Struggling to survive, I never lived for myself, but rather I was used as a tool for a power far greater than me. I was just a pawn to the underground criminal organization and even if society saw me as a criminal, the family that I accepted were the real normal for me.

"Ryu! Come here and help your big bro out!" A man with a thin pencil mustache and ugly-patterned wrinkled shirt, also known as Jun, shouted out, struggling to carry a large cardboard box.

"I'll be right there, bro!" Rushing downstairs, I carried his box and two more large boxes. I quickly ran back upstairs and gently placed the rest of the cardboard boxes next to the kitchen sink. With a heavy sigh, I rushed back to the rest of the crew.

"Ryu, you are way too energetic and too muscular for your own good. But as the youngest, you should feel honored to be working with us." Jun, slapped me hard in the back, forcing me to straighten my back. But it didn't hurt me as much as it surprised me.

"GEEZ, RYU! Your back is all sweaty. On our way home, let's go hit the bathhouse real quick."

"Thanks!" I gave a strong bow, even with all my muscle aching.

While walking back to the moving truck, I found an old lady struggling to pick up the apples that she dropped from her shopping bag. Rushing towards her, I quickly got the apples and handed them to her.

"Here ya go, m'am"

"Why, thank you, young ma-"

When she looked up to see me, her expression changed from a gentle smile to a wrinkled mesh of fear. With such widened eyes, she grabbed the apples from my hand and ran as fast as her leg could take her.

Disheartened, but not surprised, I knew that my physique would scare her. As a large muscular man with a large scar across my right eye and sweating viciously from today's labor, I must have looked like a perverted thug trying to take advantage of the old lady. My awkward expression doesn't help either.

Jun shouted at me from the driver's seat of the moving truck. With one last look back at the old lady's direction, I ran back to the moving truck.

Laying in the warm green tea water, I felt all my sweat and weight dragged away from me. I gave myself a good stretch reaching up to the ceiling and went sinking back into the water. Now, this is heaven.

I'm glad I was able to find this crew.

When I was real young, my parents weren't really good to me, but instead of dealing with it for the rest of my life, I decided to make my own destiny. I was 13 years old when I decided to live out in the street, but I couldn't survive for more than two months without almost starving myself to death. If it wasn't for Grandma, I don't think I would ever be able to find my new family and finally feel at home.

"Yo, Ryu!" The man much older, shorter and muscular than Jun, called out to me and as if it was a tradition, slapped me hard in the back.

"Hey! Hope that other delivery wasn't too much for you to do alone!" I was about to stand up from the water and bow again, but the muscular man, or Dai, signaled to me to sit back down.

"Well, I'm pretty sure Jun made you do everything again!"

Dai slapped the water hitting his knee as he gave his famous hearty laugh that echoed across the bathhouse.

"But, goddamn, Ryu, you just keep growing! Man, it must be nice being young and not having to work as hard to get to where you're at. I remember when I was your age..."

It was true. While I stopped at 204 cm for five years, in terms of my muscle, I used to run errands from my previous family and when I lived with Grandma. Later on, when I decided to join the crew, I worked out with my brothers to shape my muscles instead of just build them. After getting hooked into the workouts and routine, I just started to continue my daily exercises and got really tanned as a result of it too. At least these muscles come in handy to really help the crew out.

"So, Ryu, are you excited to finally get your promotion?"

While I was rubbing the same spot I was hit by Jun, Dai's words suddenly hit me and I jumped up from the water.

"W-wait, Dai! I'm getting promoted? I only started about three and a half years ago and I'm already going to be in the same position as you guys?"

"Well, if I have to be honest, we haven't been getting that many recruits these days. And it kind of sucks that you've been in that position for all those years, even though you've been basically working the same amount we have. You're already like your big bro's. Anyway the only real change is that you're going to be more responsible for things and you're going to have to teach the new recruits."

Even though I was excited to finally have my work shown, I became disheartened and sank back into the water.

"Actually, isn't this too early? What if I screw up?"

"Hey, hey, you're overthinking this. All you have to do is help ease our burden of teaching the new recruits and you'll be a-okay."

"Really, Dai? Do you really believe I can do it?"

"Ryu, this is your big bro talking. Also, if Jun can do it, you can too."

The bathhouse door suddenly slid open and Jun walked through with only a small towel held over his crotch.

"Did you just put me in the same category with our little bro?" Jun immediately slapped the same place that Ryu was hit in the morning.

Slightly crying in the corner after that most recent hit, I noticed that someone else was missing.

"Hey, where did Kyo go?"

"Now that you mention it, I haven't seen him in a while. That guy always runs off doing his own thing. If he doesn't stick to what the boss says, he might just get himself killed one day."

Ryu and Dai both looked at Jun with a suspicious glare.

"WHAT? Kyo just keeps sticking his nose into other people's businesses or just disappears on his own. I don't know what he's doing, but he's lucky that Ryu can carry for basically three of us." Jun said, pointing his thumb back at Ryu.

"But, Jun, you weren't helping out too."

"YEAH YEAH! That's besides the point. What I'm saying is that Kyo better come back to work next time, or he's going to catch these hands!"

Then Jun slapped me in the same spot again and that was the one that caused me to flinch aggressively into the water.

Jun and Dai had a hearty laugh until they decided to get ready to go home.


	2. Part 2

Finally, a three day weekend mini vacation! After helping out with all the moving, I was so glad to be able to do whatever I wanted. Usually Jun would ask me to join him in some fishing or Dai would ask me to go watch an old classic movie that he would follow for his movie club, but this time, they seem to all be busy. I guess since I already woke up this late, I should just go for some lunch.

There were other restaurants with great food, but the customers would constantly glare at me in such an uncomfortable fashion. So, I usually like to eat my food either in the red light district or somewhere much more remote and hidden. The red light district might not seem like it, but they have one of the best foods I've ever tasted. Even those fancy high class restaurants couldn't compare to the simple taste of a home cooked meal!

Casually walking around to see what catches my eyes, I found someone who looked really familiar. The man was trying to cover his face with his baseball cap, but it was hard not to notice his long straight ponytail swinging around. But as soon as I saw his ponytail and dark skin, I knew who that was.

"Kyo bro!" I shouted from across the alleyway. I knew that this man was trying to be sneaky, but I just had to know if that was really Kyo.

The man jumped up a little as he saw my large figure running towards him, while I furiously swung my right hand in the air. Noticing me, he quickly dashed into the restaurant in front of him.

Maybe that was a bad idea...

I decided to follow Kyo quietly and went into the restaurant. The restaurant was almost a blank slate with quite cheap looking white tables and red chairs, giving off almost a nostalgic ambience to pop up tent bars. According to the menu behind the counter, the food provided consisted of mainly simple street food and classic Asian dishes.

I became confused on why Kyo was trying so hard to hide his presence to walk into this small restaurant. Then suddenly a small figure appeared next to me.

"HI HI!"

"AHHHHH!"

"AHHHHH!"

As if on cue, we both started screaming in unison.

"WILL YA SHUT UP?!"

Again we stopped screaming immediately in unison, then I turned around to see Kyo come out from under the countertop.

"Kyo bro!" I gave a bow to him. When I looked back up, I noticed that he was wearing a cute pink frilly apron with a knife in his right hand and a pink bandana with small bunnies patterned around it. With that, I also turned to see who my singing duet was at that moment.

A beautiful female with a short bob hair and heavy makeup was shyly hiding behind her large circular tray. She was quite short, yet she seemed to be quite built as if her frame was much sharper than it seems.

"Sorry! I didn't notice that you helped out at this restaurant! Is she the one who owns the restaurant?"

The woman started flailing her arms and furiously shaking her head. "O-oh no! Actually, it's my best friend who owns the restaurant, but your 'Kyo bro' basically runs this splendid restaurant!"

"A-ah, it's no big deal." Kyo quickly looked away trying to hide his embarrassed expression. He turned back to look at me and I shudder at witnessing an aura of such murderous intent.

"What ya follow me for, Ryu? Ain't it your day off?"

"Sorry! I just came by to get some food, but if you want me to leave-"

"Nah."

"Wait, what did you say?"

"Just sit here and eat some food. I cook ya something."

"Really?! Thanks!" I bowed again and ran to take the closest seat.

The young brunette waitress walked up to me with a smile that made me melt a little.

"Hi hi! My name is Kei! I will be your waitress for today!"

"Oh, hi Kei! Umm, can I have the chicken noodle stir fry with shrimp tempura on the side, with an extra bowl of rice, some pork potstickers, and a large ice tea?"

"Oh my, you sure are a large eater! I'll be right back with your order!"

Kei skipped off graciously to Kyo and handed him some scribbled notes.

After some time with my large meal, I felt famished.

"You're an amazing cook! I can't believe you never told us about your cooking skills! Now that I think about it, all those times, we had an overnight shift to watch over the boss's house, you could have made us make us some delicious home cooked meal!"

"Hey, watch how you're talking to your seniors. I'll make sure that this chicken isn't the only thing getting cooked."

"Sorry..."

"I'll be honest with ya, but only if you keep it between us!" Kyo threateningly held a knife towards me and I vigorously nodded in agreement.

"I've actually been getting sick of working for the Isamu Clan and recently been wanting to do something different. I guess that when I met Kei here, my passion for cooking was reignited and I decided that I wanted to work here, or something like that."

Something I would be passionate in... it's been a while since I even had time to think about what I wanted to do. For the longest time, I've only thought about eating and surviving the streets. I tried to avoid any words like hope and dreams, because they only brought me anxiety and fears of how I would survive. I just focused on what I needed to do and made plans for the future. But now, I've been so comfortable for so long, I guess I never really had the thought of wanting to change anything.

"So, are you going to leave the clan?"

"Nah, can't. I've been in the clan for so long, I might end up having some major consequences if I just suddenly up and left. Especially since the neighboring clans have been rising tensions for us and the Isamu clan has been shrinking rapidly these days."

"Isn't it just because we aren't getting that many recruits these days?"

"Nah. It's because more of us have been getting killed."

The air suddenly went cold. While I was getting slightly sick from the idea of people missing and getting killed, Kyo continued to cut the chicken in front of him.

"Hey, how long has this been going on?"

"For about four months, why? Wait, I thought Dai or Jun told ya about this?"

"Nah, they didn't."

"Well, if you're going to be promoted anyways, you might as well know now. Eventually, you're going to have to deal with these types of things."

Being in the yakuza long enough, you do tend to see some violent things. Especially with the line of work we take in our group. We were occasionally sent out to beat a few people up under the boss' orders and did some turf fights. But killing someone was something that I would never touch.

A small pat landed on my back, causing me to break out of my trance.

"Hey, Ryu, don't think hard about it. Ya ain't going to ever need to kill someone. It's not like ya to do it anyways."

"Y-yeah, thanks, Kyo..."

"Let me tell ya something, Ryu."

Kyo pulled up a chair and sat right next to me.

"The work we do can be stressful on anyone and I don't want you to become too reliant on it. I've known you for a long time and I know this ain't for you. But we got to make a living somehow. So, I want you to start thinking about what you want to do or even find something you want to be passionate about. If you can do that, then you wouldn't have to rely on the yakuza as a base for your will to live. Remember, Ryu, the yakuza is there to help us survive, but you need a passion to really live."

I looked down for a minute trying to process everything Kyo told me. I was so used to the fact of finding a stable ground to stand on, I forgot about even walking through the ground I was given. I have to start looking for what I want to do with my life. I don't want to end up revolving my life only to the yakuza, but I also don't want to lose my family.

"I understand, Kyo. I'll try to find something that I can try out!"

"Atta boy, Ryu! Honestly, ya grown so much since I last saw you! Have you gotten bigger?"

Kyo gave me a rough ruffle on my head and we ended up talking about our past days for a few more hours.


	3. Part 3

Another day finished with the heavy labors and another day Kyo missed out on his work.

It was concerning how many days Kyo's been skipping out on, but I guess since we haven't been called for any major stakeout, we would be able to cover for him. Speaking of Kyo, I was thinking of getting more of his food. I should check out what he's been doing these days.

Breaking my out of my trance, Dai suddenly squeezed my shoulders really hard.

"Hey, Ryu, ya want to join us for dinner? We're thinking of getting some hotpot!"

"Sorry, Dai bro, I gotta go! I got some things I got to do!"

Jun shot his head out of the passenger seat of the moving truck and shouted, "What?! Ya ain't got time for your big bros anymore? Wait a minute... ya got yourself a girlfriend?! I'm so proud of ya, Ryu!"

I instinctively avoided Jun's hit to my back and turned to him.

"W-WHAT?! No, bro! I-I just wanted to look into some things. Maybe try out something new, ya know?"

"Hmm, my boy is going on a self-discovery journey to become a real man. Okay, then! This is your opportunity to take flight! I won't hold you back! Fly, Ryu, fly!"

As Jun's eyes sparkled with passion, I just stood there in confusion. After I bowed, I immediately ran to a shortcut from the moving truck headquarters to Kyo's restaurant.

Through the shortcut, I would go through a small alleyway and into a busy high-class street for exquisite wine bars, fancy restaurants, and a major gambling arena. The street was nicknamed "The Billionaires' Playground", due to how much late night activity the street holds for those with a lot of money. The playground was for the rich, made by the rich. The yakuza holds a strong presence in providing protection and occasionally participating in the playground themselves.

But, lackeys like me would only come as hired bodyguards for humans or objects. And from my memory of about five months of being a bodyguard, there were so many more people than last time.

_Maybe there's some event happening this week._

Trying to walk as quickly as possible through the shortcut, I heard a cry from an older woman with a large white fur coat. As I analyzed the situation, I found her pointing into a crowd and a man with a black hat trying to push through the crowd as quickly as possible.

Without a second thought, I placed myself in a runner's position and ran myself straight towards the man with the black hat. While I was about to jump him, someone jumped in front of me in the same direction.

Trying to prevent my collision, I pushed myself in a 90 degrees angle to the left into a gated open table restaurant. I tripped over the gate and collided into the empty metallic chairs and table, slowing down my momentum towards the other person. Ignoring the screaming customers, I quickly bowed down and shouted "I'm sorry", before jumping back into the street to find the man with the black hat.

Instead, I found a crowd forming in the middle of the sidewalk. I slowly stopped myself towards the crowd and luckily with my height, I was able to look over the crowd with ease. I noticed that someone was on top of the man with the black hat and twisted his arm behind his back until he let go of the purple purse.

As the police officer ran over to handcuff the thief, the thief catcher was smoothly answering all the questions the other police officer was asking him. Then, after the police left with the thief, the young man walked through the crowd and in synchronization, the crowd opened a path for him like a parting sea. As the woman with the fur coat awkwardly ran up to him, he gently grabbed the woman's hand and flipped it over to reveal her palm.

With such suave he said, "Miss, I hope that your night was not ruined by this savage man. If you do not have an acquaintance to keep you in check, I would be willing to stay behind until you can confirm all your belongings are still there."

He gently placed the purse into her right hand and looked up at her with one of the most dazzling smiles that I've ever seen.

As he was removing his hand from the purse, she quietly grabbed his wrist. She looked up at him and almost as she was being hypnotized by him, she kept staring into his eyes. Then with a final blow, he gave a teasing wink to her, pushing her to become a bright red.

Suddenly, breaking me and her out of the trance that he placed us under, he said "Miss, I believe that it would be about time for you to check your belongings before the criminal takes something to the police station."

"O-oh, I'm so sorry! That was so silly of me. I guess I got so scared of this night that I lost my train of thought."

She laughed nervously while slowly looking through her purse. As the crowd slowly dissipated back to their original activities, someone was running from a few blocks behind and shouted "HEY!" while pointing in my direction. I looked around to check if he was searching for someone else, but he finally ran up to me and was panting hard in between each breath.

He lifted himself up and with a sudden surge of energy and anger, he tried to push me and started shouting, "YOU BASTARD! YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST CRASH INTO MY RESTAURANT AND NOT PAY FOR ANY DAMAGE?!"

I suddenly remember the restaurant I crashed into. I was trying to explain what happened, but the man in white continued to shout at me and threatened to find the police that was there before. With every sentence, he got even redder by the second.

I was starting to panic about how I could deescalate this situation, but I didn't want to scare him by suddenly shouting louder than him. That might make him want to shout at me even more. As I was about to try to say something, the handsome man from before suddenly tapped the angry man on the shoulder.

"Sir, I don't think this might be the right place to have this conversation."

"WHAT WOULD YOU KNOW, YOU BASTARD?!"

The man in white turned around to see who tapped him, but so filled with anger, he ended up directing his shouting towards the handsome man.

"YOU THINK THAT THIS BASTARD SHOULD JUST GET AWAY WITH WHAT HE DID?"

"No, sir. He definitely deserves to pay some retribution for the damage he caused. You are completely justified to be mad at a bastard like him."

Hey, that's not really nice.

"But isn't it quite pointless to yell at him? Maybe you can use him to do some free labor for you? Or even get him sued."

"YEA, MAYBE I WILL!"

Before this handsome demon dug my grave any further, the woman in the fur coat came forward and proudly said to the man in white, "Sir, it may be best if you let him go."

"WELL, WE GOT ANOTHER WISE GU-"

Then, as he locked eye contact with the woman, all the color disappeared from the man's face and almost as if he was physically shrinking, he quickly shut his mouth up.

With an aggressive bow, he stuttered, "I-I'm so s-sorry, madam. I didn't notice you were suddenly out here. Please forgive me for my rudeness, but this savage crashed into our outside portion of our restaurant, potentially harming and disrupting our custome-"

"You have been plenty rude and have been disrupting the public as he did with the restaurant. So, if you want to keep your job, I recommend you immediately stop this ridiculous shouting match."

He went even paler and bowed even further down.

"I apologize for my incompetence, Ms. Walter!"

"Just give all those customers a reimbursement by paying for their meal and apologize to them individually for the sudden disruption. Get the waiters to clean up for the mess and if you need any new furniture, just tell your manager that I directly am willing to pay."

As she handed him a card from her purse, he angrily glared at me and went back to his bow after grabbing the card.

"We truly thank you for your generous compensation to the restaurant from the bottom of my heart. We will let you continue on with your night."

He finally turned around and left the handsome man, the woman in the fur coat, and me in the silent, yet bustling night.

Ms. Walter gave a large sigh and turned to grab the handsome man's arm, "Since it's getting this late, I would love for you to escort me to my home."

With a gentle smile, he replied, "Unfortunately I do have a job that I must continue to work through, but if you would like, we can meet another time."

The handsome man grabbed a black card from his front left breast pocket and casually handed it to her. Grabbing the card and inspecting for a few seconds, she gave a small giggle and let him go.

"Okay, then. I wouldn't mind coming by once in a while."

She then gave a quick call on her phone and a black car immediately came by the street. The woman gave a gentle wave before she was escorted into the car.

Surprised by the sudden turns of events, I couldn't help, but just watch everything unfold in front of me.

"Hey, you bastard!"

The handsome man looked up at me with an annoyed expression.

Looking back with confusion, I responded, "I have a name."

"Well, I assumed your name was bastard from that guy, but I admit I might just agree with him, because that was incredibly reckless of you to be running into the crowd like that. You have to be aware of how large your body is. You can't just jump into situations and run so aggressively! What if someone got rammed from your huge body?"

"I-I'm so sorry! I apologize for dragging you into that!"

"This ain't the military. You don't have to be so formal. Anyway, I gotta go, but please don't just jump into things without giving it some thoughts."

As he turned around, he waved to another female waiting at the other side of the street. He then disappeared into the crowd with her.

Standing there as if I was almost frozen in time, I decided to just go back home and buy some convenience store sushi on the way.

I don't think I want to come to this street for a while again.


	4. Part 4

Stretching my arms as I stared at my small window through my rundown apartment, I stood up and did my daily stretch workout to get myself to wake up. Trying not to knock anything over with this annoyingly large body, I got myself ready for another day.

I had a hard time focusing on my morning workout, especially since that insane day of interacting with that handsome escort and the rich woman. In the end, I decided to stay off that street for a while and just stick to taking the regular route from my house to Kyo's restaurant. I didn't want to deal with any more people staring at me for a while. Especially, those rich people who have too many fragile objects exposed out in the open, to the point of giving me anxiety.

It's been about two days since I had to deal with that chaotic experience, taking me a while to even digest that moment. Or maybe, it was the convenience store sushi, that's still not working well with me.

It was the weekend for me, so I was thinking of whether I wanted to go watch a movie with Dai, go fishing with Jun, or...

Eat Kyo's delicious food! There's no debate about this! I'm craving his chicken stir fry noodles and I can't wait another day!

Running out of the house, I took in the air and started to do a small jog.

Damn, I can't stop thinking about that day. That handsome man has some amazing charisma! To be able to get away with saying all that without getting in trouble and even swaying that woman's heart in such a short span of time. He must be a genius of charisma or something. He was a bit rude, but I still couldn't help being drawn to him. It was almost like my eyes were glued to him...

Almost into the edge of the red light district, this street tends to be much quieter in the afternoon, but for some reason, there was a place that seems to have more customers coming in and out than I ever seen in any other stores.

Curious to see what was attracting so many people, I walked over to the doorway and grabbed one of the cards hanging right next to the door. As I try to take a sneak peek through the blackened glass door, the door suddenly bursts open. The woman waiting by the doorway, jumped up from the bench outside and ran towards the person coming out of the restaurant. I tried to get away from the hoard of aggressive women, but one of them ended up bumping into me hard. She fell hard on the ground and I turned around to help her up.

"I-I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to-"

As soon as I made eye contact with the woman, all colors dropped from her face and she looked away from me. It's happening again.

"U-umm, please don't hurt me. I'm just here for the restaurant. Please I'll give you my money, just don't hurt me."

She continued to look at the ground with her hands above her head, covering herself from me. Even though I knew that it was natural to be scared especially when we're so near the red light district, it still hurt me to know that this woman was scared of me.

I kneeled down to her level and continued to give my best smile and said, "Don't worry, Ms! I don't wan-"

"Is there a problem here?"

The woman and I simultaneously looked at the direction of the voice.

"It's you!" I said while jumping up from the ground.

The handsome man had slightly silver-blue hair that almost looked natural against his pale baby smooth skin. Compared to a scary looking gorilla creature like me, it was almost as if the moon spirit descended and personified into this silver haired prince.

As he glared at me, he gracefully walked towards the woman on the ground and kneeled to her similar to how I did before.

But rather than fear, the woman looked at the handsome man with such joy and relief. The man opened his hand to her and she placed her hand over his without breaking any eye contact. He gave a smile even brighter than mine and gently pulled her up from the ground. Then, he smoothly pulled her into his arms and gave her a small pat on the head.

She cuddled herself further into his chest and looked like she was in the happiest place on Earth. While quietly purring into the chest, the woman looked up as the handsome man gave a small tap on her head. After he gave a small whisper into her ear, she gave a giddy smile and ran into the restaurant with the rest of her jealous, yet squealing friends.

After giving a small wave to them, he immediately had a 180 degree personality turn and looked at me angrily.

"I don't understand how you can be so unaware of what you look like when you come up to people like that! Please just stop trying to help people without being aware of the circumstances you're in! It's just making you look worse and you end up disrupting the atmosphere of those around you! Geez!"

The handsome man gave one last deep sigh before turning around back into the restaurant.

I know it should hurt, but I felt somewhat happy. I was happy to know that someone knew what my intention was. That I wasn't there to hurt anyone, but instead he was aware of my action. I felt like I was seen.

Confused, yet excited, I felt like for the first time in my life I finally understood what I wanted. Going against his advice again, I ran in between him and the doorway to the restaurant. Without a second thought, I dropped onto the ground into a deep bow position and let the mud from previous days splash into my mouth.

What is this? My body just kept moving on its own, but I didn't want to stop it. I didn't understand why I was doing any of this, but it just felt right. I was so excited and I couldn't think straight. The blood rushed to my head and I just couldn't tell what I was about to say. But I knew that phrase would change the rest of my life.

"PLEASE, MAKE ME YOUR APPRENTICE!"


	5. Part 5

"Whoa, so this is where you work, Master?" Ryu tried to look all over the empty section of the restaurant like a puppy sniffing and exploring his new home.

A dashing late 20s aged bleach blonde-hair man with glasses looked at Ryu from the bar table, trying to understand what he was doing. He gave a deep sigh and turned to look at me.

"So, Nao, why'd you bring in this scary ass looking guy again?"

"I told you that I don't know."

"Can I say this is the same thing as when you brought in that stray puppy into the restaurant, but the owner got mad at you and threatened to throw you out with the puppy?"

"I said I DON'T KNOW."

I was pinching the bridge of my nose to try to soothe this major headache that was rushing to me. But I was mainly mad at myself for how right this dumbass looking bartender, or Sho, was. Even if I wanted to explain what was going on, I wouldn't even understand it myself...

"PLEASE, MAKE ME YOUR APPRENTICE!"

The yakuza was just bowing down in the mud and ended up getting some of it splashed at my clothes. I did become a bit pissed at first because of how difficult it was going to be to remove the stain on my clothes, but I decided to focus my attention on why this guy really wanted me.

Trying to hide my anger, I crouched down to his level and gave a small pat on his back.

"Oi, just stand up. Brown isn't a good look on ya. Anyway, you should just go home already before I call security on ya."

He kept his position and wouldn't look up from the ground.

"My name is Ryu and you're the only one who can help me! I promise to explain everything, but please just give me a chance to work with ya for a while!"

_What the hell does this guy want from me? It was one thing that I had to help him out from that other night, but he's got to stop going around and disrupting the public. This guy is making my work so much harder than it needs to be._

"Please! I just want to become like you! I want to understand what you were able to do to become so-so- SO CHARISMATIC!"

Shocked, I was kind of taken aback at what this yakuza just said to me. I stood up from the ground and turned my head towards the street.

Trying to hide my embarrassment from his words, I hesitantly responded to him, "I-I guess I am pretty amazing, aren't I?"

He looked up from the ground and with a sparkle in his eyes, he shouted, "YOU ARE!"

"Oi! Stop it, will ya!" Even though I said that I couldn't help but look back down at him, waiting for some other compliments to happen.

The begging man pushed himself off the ground and shouted, "I'm serious! You are so amazing! How you were able to persuade those women to come to your restaurant! Or even how they weren't scared of you even when they never met you before! To be able to get that many people to suddenly listen to you and be charmed by you, that must be some amazing manipulation!"

As I was absorbing this shower of compliments, something in his words threw me off. _"Manipulation"? Wait a minute, does he think that I brainwashed these women to do what I said?_

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU SAY?"

"U-uh, did I say something wrong?"

"YEAH! I don't manipulate nor brainwash any of my clients! They all come out of their own volition! How dare you say that I use some kind of second hand trick to get them to follow me?"

"Oh, I'm so sorry! I thought that you used some kind of technique to put them under some kind of trance..."

"You think I used some kind of superpower thing to control them to come to me!"

"Maybe..."

"You're a lot stupider than I thought. Just leave before I lose my patience."

Walking halfway into the doorway, the yakuza grabbed my left arm and looked back at me with teary eyes. Even through my clothes, I could tell how big his hands were as he grabbed my thin arms.

"Please... I just don't want to make people scared anymore when they see me. I want them to see me as who I am..."

I never saw such a large man cry like that in public before. Oh no, I think I discovered something new about myself.

I cleared my throat a little and just said, "Follow me."

"Huh, I guess you're a lot stupider than I took you to be." Sho just shook his head as he continued to clean the rest of the glass cup laid out on the counter top.

"Shut up. I can't just leave an idiot out like that, crying in public! It ain't a good look to the restaurant and it'll just ruin the atmosphere. Anyway, getting some extra hands ain't that bad, especially for tonight."

"What is with you and what the public thinks? Should just leave him alone and let the 'public' deal with it. At times like this is when you're supposed to just look away and ignore people like him."

_Well, that's easier said than done, you dumbass Sho. Why don't you go fucking help him yourself, you stupid fucker._

"Anyway, you're lucky that the owner isn't here, or you would have been in such big trouble for bringing a stranger over."

"Fuck you, Sho."

"Hey, hey, you might get a wrinkle if you keep getting too mad. You're lucky that we decided to close early and most of the hosts left for their appointments. But you do remember why we closed early, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, for the private event. Don't have to keep reminding me. And also I'll let you know, I was the one to attract her in the first place."

"Yep, of course. Our #1 host can't be beat. Wow, so amazing. Thank you, Prince Nao."

"Stick it up your ass, Sho."

"Gladly, Prince Nao."

We were somehow able to find a XXL white T shirt and an apron to cover the rest of this dirty clothes. It was last minute, but all the hosts and staff were either absent for a holiday vacation or their own appointments, so he was pretty handy for now. After Ryu finally settled down into the makeup room with his new clothes, he sat there as he waited for me to finish my hair styling and makeup for the night.

"So, Nao, what are you doing right now?"

"I'm getting ready for the private event for tonight."

"The what?"

"Actually, it's none of your business. And also you're not supposed to even be in here."

"Why? To be able to see you so close up and getting ready to work! I want to watch you in action!"

Ryu continued to stare at me with such intensity, it felt like his eyes were going to burn into me. I had to calm down and mentally prepare for this night. It was one of our biggest nights and I had to make it become as successful as possible. Well, I do admit, I have to give some credit to Ryu for helping me find such a valuable customer.

During my time at the "The Billionaire's Playground", I was just escorting one of my female clients for that night and was taking her out to one of her favorite restaurants, in which she would always pay for the both of us. But when I heard the screaming woman on the other side of the street, I decided to scan the area to make sure my female client wasn't going to get attacked. Instead, I found a large burly tanned man in a dirty blue-gray jumpsuit running towards another man with a black hat.

While witnessing the crime scene unfold, I saw the man in the black hat trying to go into the street to jump a passing car. I thought that the large man was going to smash into the crowd of people blindly in order to catch the thief, so I stupidly decided to run across the street and tried to block the man with the black hat from entering the street. That backfired as I did not notice how quickly the jumpsuit man was sprinting towards the black hat man, causing myself to almost collide with him.

That idiot basically sacrificed himself to prevent him from jumping into me. But I'll never tell him that it was my fault. Well, everything turned out okay in the end, and I was even able to find a sweet deal. Even though I hoped to never meet this yakuza again, I guess it's not too bad to have someone truly appreciate my talent.

"Okay, Ryu, first rule, you have to do whatever I say. But, don't take my word as literally as possible, just understand the context of the order I'm telling you."

"Yes sir!"

"Second rule, since you're not leaving me, I guess, do not ever disturb me in the middle of my work. If you want to disturb me, call for the manager, Sho, or the security guard. No one else!"

"Got it, manager, Sho, guard!"

"And last rule for now, don't tell anyone that I'm helping you do this. This is between you and me. If word goes out that I've been helping a yakuza out, some weird rumors are going to pop up."

"Okay, keep secret! I won't let you down, sir!"

Ryu gave an aggressive bow.

"Okay, okay. For now, can you just try to help out Sho bring the food around and listen to any orders he gives you until I'm done with my work."

"YES SIR!"

"SHHHHH, Not so loud. Geez, do you want the whole world to hear ya? Okay, I have a few minutes to settle. PLEASE DO NOT DISTURB MY WORK."

"YES- I mean, Yes sir!"

"Okay, then."

I closed my eyes, taking a large breath in and then brought it back out. I circled my arms inward in one large motion until I placed both palms of my hand together into a prayer hand. And then quickly opened my eyes.

I grabbed the dresser's doorknob and shouted, "IT'S SHOW TIME!"


	6. Part 6

Running behind to help out Sho, I didn't take my eyes off Nao to analyze every single move he made when talking to the clients. I couldn't wait to figure out what makes him so special!

"Yo, Ryu, you're actually pretty good at handling the bar. Like the method you used to clean, that's something I would have taught you halfway into the training, but it seems like you already know what you're doing. Have you done this before?"

"Yeah, actually, I helped someone out when I was pretty young and I really give all my credit to her for raising me."

"Oh, you mean, your mom?"

"Nah... She wasn't really in my life..."

"....Huh, then who raised you?"

"I was raised by an old lady who owned a bar, who I called Grandma."

Sho suddenly stopped and looked up at the ceiling, trying to think about something.

"Wait, what was your old lady like?"

"She was really sweet and always made sure that I lived comfortably. She also makes one of the best virgin Pina Colada, making almost exactly how I like it. Man, I miss her."

Sho continued to look Ryu puzzled and then shook his head to focus back on the dish washing.

"Nah, can't be her."

"Who's not 'her'?"

"We have an old lady who owns this host club, but she's the complete opposite of what you're describing. She's always cranky and complaining about how we're never working hard enough. And she would NEVER cook for us. Since she's paying us, she expects us to cook for her, so that doesn't sound like a wrinkly dictator."

"Hmm, interesting, well, I hope I can see her one day!"

"You might not see her these days to be honest."

"Wait, what do you mean?"

"She just got injured recently, but she's luckily recovering in the hospital right now. So nothing to worry about."

"Oh! That's a relief! I thought something happened to her for a second."

"Nah, but actually, Ryu, do you still meet up with your old lady these days?"

I couldn't respond. It felt like something got caught in my throat and the memories were still a bit too painful to recall.

"You don't have to tell me. One of the best parts of working in this host club is not just the meals, but also the fact that you can be yourself without having your past judged. I won't ask about anything, if you don't want to tell me."

I tried to give my best smile, but it must have come across a bit disheartening as Sho decided to silently go back to washing the dishes.

Looking back at Sho, a thought came to me that I wasn't really losing anything if I were to tell my story to a stranger who didn't care about talking to a scary looking guy like me. Maybe, since he doesn't get really scared talking to me, he might be okay listening to me.

"Actually, if you're willing to listen, it might be a bit of a long story."

"Hey, we got all night, especially with how much Nao can talk a person ear off."

I gave out a smile with a strong air out my nose. Finally with the last glass cup put away, I leaned against the countertop and started to talk about my story.

Back then, my family was pretty much disjointed. Never in the same room at the same time or never even in the same house. It wasn't overtly horrible, but it certainly wasn't welcoming. Occasionally my dad would get drunk after his work and suddenly have an angry outburst in the middle of night, breaking the furniture or going into my mom's bedroom to lay out his anger across.

And the day after those nights, my mom wouldn't get out of her bed and just lay there for hours. Then, after she feels like coming up, she disappears for days and when she comes back, the cycle continues. We weren't too poor, but I wasn't too stupid to want to keep living that way. I was 13 years old when I decided to finally leave and found myself screwed pretty quickly.

Out on the streets, I could barely survive two months and would live on a bench near a river under the bridge. Eventually, a kind older woman occasionally came by to the bench I slept in and left a bag of peanuts in the middle of the night. After about three days, I decided to stay awake to thank her for the peanuts.

After I thanked her for the peanuts, I somehow started to talk about my past and my mouth just kept running. And the more I talked, the more tears started pouring out. Eventually my crying was what stopped me from talking her ears off. From that embarrassing moment, the woman offered me to work for my part time at her bar and I took it without any hesitation. Because I was constantly running errands for my parents, I was used to running errands for the bar and would do a lot of janitorial work. I learned a lot of my customer service skills from her and was really happy to live in a stable home.

Eventually, I would even go to school, but because I didn't want to leave Grandma by herself, I wouldn't have time to do a lot of school activities, leaving home as soon as possible. Because of that I didn't do that well in my studies nor did I really have a lot of friends.

Then, they came.

At first, it was a few yakuza's that would visit the restaurant, but after a while, a group of yakuza started to come over to the bar restaurant a lot more than we anticipated. Eventually, they decided to claim our restaurant as a mini hangout spot, but since they were bringing in a lot of revenue, it was kind of hard to tell to stop coming. While it was a bit scary at first, the yakuza's became really friendly with me and would occasionally take me out to get other food after I was done with my shift. I was happy to make friends that would be near my age, but Grandma didn't really approve of it.

That's when it started going downhill.

"So, I started to hang out more with the yakuza and started to skip out on my work shift and school too. Then, one day, Grandma confronted me about it and then I got extremely mad about her questioning my decisions. Always being someone who has no real family and friends, I finally felt accepted when I started to hang with the yakuza. And like a selfish teen, I decided that I wanted to really carve my own path and joined the yakuza. I left Grandma all to herself and I still don't know what happened to her bar restaurant. After a month of staying with the yakuza, I decided to come back to apologize to her. But I discovered that the restaurant was quickly sold and Grandma was gone..."

Then, when I checked to look at Sho, his back was turned from me and I saw him slightly shaking.

"Umm, you okay, Sho?"

As I was about to tap him on the shoulder, he immediately turned around and cleared his throat.

"Y-yeah, I just got something in my eyes. It was pretty annoying and stuff. So, don't worry about it."

"Oh, umm, but thanks for listening. Sorry, if that was kind of annoying to listen to."

"Nah, Ryu. You had a rough life-"

He continued to try to clear his throat and face himself away from me again.

Uhh, did I do something wrong?

"Okay, I think that's enough for today! It should be about time for our VIP guests to get their dinner!"

"Oh, did they already finish cooking?"

"Yep, for sure! A 100%."

"Oh, Sho, please don't tell anyone about this! I told you in confidence, because I guess you seem like a cool guy..."

Sho choked up again and smacked his fist into his chest.

"Don't worry, Ryu! Remember, we don't ask about your past!"

"Thank you, Sho bro! Okay, then! Just tell me what to do!"

"You got it! LET'S DO THIS!"

They both pumped themselves by doing some jumping jacks and stretches, then gave themselves a high five.


	7. Part 7

"Oh my goodness, Nao. I never knew you were into movies so much."

The drunken woman grabbed Nao's arm, causing the makeup to be rubbed off onto his arm. Even though Nao looked like he was about to scream from his white collared button up getting dirtied, he was still able to maintain such a dazzling smile.

From the corner, I continued to look at him in admiration and would stand there until Sho would call for me. When Nao excused himself for the bathroom, the bodyguards would come in and stand next to the door. They were much smaller than me, but I was still too nervous to deal with professionals like them. After inching myself away from them, I noticed that the drunk woman who was laying her head against her arm, was the same woman from that other day at the "The Billionaire's Playground".

It took me too long to realize who she was and I started to hide myself to prevent her from noticing me. But that just caught her attention towards me even more.

"Oiiiii. You waiter!"

Even though I pretended to not notice it, Sho jabbed in the side of my right chest and signaled with his head for me to come up to her.

"Y-yes, ma'am."

"Haven't I seen ya somewhere?"

"I don't believe so-"

"NO! I know you! You're that stupid man who destroyed that outdoors restaurant! Oh man, so you worked for Nao? HA! You're lucky that yours truly, Ms. Walter, bailed your ass."

I stood there in silence and continued to look at the ground.

"Oh well, can you just hurry up and get Nao? I want to see him so baadddd."

"I will hurry and get him."

But as I was about to leave, she grabbed onto my arm and with a surprising amount of strength, she pulled me into the chair next to her.

"Actually, I think you would do. Wow, your arm is so big! I have to wrap both of my arms around it to even hold you! HAHA! Anyway, why don't you enjoy a drink with me?"

While I wasn't feeling comfortable, I noticed that this was a good chance for me to practice talking to a woman without scaring her. So, I decided to go along with it.

"O-of course, m'am. What would you like?"

"Man, you're so stiff! Let's just talk about something! Actually, there was this one time that one of my higher ups was being such a fucking ass..."

She continued to ramble on for an hour. While this happened, I was too nervous to move as she was grabbing onto my arm really tightly. It was the same feeling of when a cat lands on your lap, but you need to pee real bad. I was almost holding my breath at one point to not alert her too much.

The more she rambled, the closer she was about to fall asleep. And then, when she let go of my arm, her head drifted forwards and was about to fall into the table. Before she landed into the table, I quickly tried to stop her. But I ended up grabbing something soft.

The woman didn't wake up and instead dug deeper into my arms, causing the soft feeling to spread into my cupped hands. I was panicking and tried to push her away into the couch instead, but she wouldn't let go of me. If I let go now, I knew she would drop face forward into the ground and get her hurt. I looked around to find someone to help me and found Sho talking with the guards.

I tried to use my available hand to wave at him and mouth "HELP" to him, but when he noticed me, he just gave me a half smile and two thumbs up. And then he just laughed and went back to talk with the guards.

_NOOOOOO, SHOOOOO, HELPPPP! PLEASE ANYONE HELP!!_

Man, why is this headache suddenly coming in so early? I should have been okay with drinking, but I guess I haven't really been eating much before. Damn, this should have been an easy jackpot, but Ms. Walter has such a high tolerance to alcohol, it's almost crazy.

I gave myself a splash on my neck to avoid getting my makeup wet and gave myself a small pat against my warm cheeks. The world felt a little dizzy to me, but this was my normal. I was so used to a world where I just disappeared in this feeling that I almost forgot who I really am. And it kind of feels nice to forget who I really am.

Staring at my reflection, I started to see something in the mirror that reminded me of something disgusting. I felt slightly strange and gross. Ugh, not again.

I slapped both of my cheeks as hard as possible and gave myself the largest smile I could. Then, I did my usual ritual of my breathing technique and immediately felt like myself again.

"Okay, you're almost there. It's show time!"

As soon as I went back to the private room, I just saw Ms. Walter's bodyguards having an arm wrestling with each other as Sho played as a referee and the sleepy Ms. Walter was clinging onto a panicking Ryu. It became almost too unbearable.

I smacked the back of Sho's head and then ran up to Ryu to smack his head as well.

They both looked at me at the same time, saying "OW!".

"You dumbasses! Can't you do anything right? The client is our #1 priorities and you guys are just goofing off! And especially you bodyguards!"

I turned to the two bodyguards who were slightly panicking to make sure Ms. Walter was waking back up.

"You guys better call her car right now and help prepare her to go home. I'll help you, but remember that if you don't do your jobs right again, we're going to tell her EVERYTHING."

The two bodyguards immediately got up from their seats and one of them was calling on their phone as the other one went out to signal the car. Sho went up to me and placed his right hand in front of his stomach as he bowed.

"Anything else's, Prince Nao?"

"Sho, I don't know whether I should beat you up until you aren't even able to help, but we don't have enough time. We need to help her go home safely and let her rest up. She told me she has an appointment meeting with a major correspondent and we need to make sure she's rested enough for it. So, Sho, go to set up three alarm from each ten minutes apart starting from 6:30 am."

"Yes, my prince." Sho gave a bow and then a quiet laugh as he left to find Ms. Walter's phone.

"Ryu, I need you to help me carry Ms. Walter carefully to the car, since you're big enough to at least carry her on your back."

"O-okay, Teacher!"

Ryu turned to try to pull Ms. Walter away from him, but she was grabbing onto his arm too hard. He was too nervous and unconfident to pull her, so I decided to jump in and whisper in Ms. Walter's ear.

"Ms. Walter, let's get you to bed. Don't you want to be a more comfortable bed?"

Ms. Walter gave a childish giggle and then started pouting.

"Noooo, he's warm and so muscle-y. I want to stay with himmm."

"Aww, Ms. Walter, don't worry, I'll make sure you have something warm to hold. I won't let you go."

Tears started rolling down her face and she started to give a soft whimper. I slowly pulled her away from Ryu's arm and gently pulled her into Ryu's back. As she dropped into Ryu's back, I continued to hold her right hand and gave it a little kiss on the back of her hand.

We continued our way outside to the awaiting car. When Ryu slowly dropped her in the limo, I lightly pushed her to the other side and placed myself halfway into the limo.

"You guys keep looking after the shop until I come in. If I take more than four hours, just clean up and close the shop after you guys leave. MAKE SURE THE GATES ARE LOCKED!"

As I was about to duck into the limo, Ryu caught my arm.

_What does he want now?_

"Nao, I just want to say that you're the most amazing host I've ever seen. I don't think I'll ever meet a man like you."

I looked back at Ms. Walter's tear-stained face and pulled myself away from Ryu's hand. I didn't look back at him and just closed the door. I grabbed Ms. Walter's hand and leaned forward over to the bodyguards.

"I just want to make sure she's back home, so just drive to where she is currently residing."

The bodyguards slightly shrugged, but continued to drive away.

I sank back into the seat and grabbed Ms. Walter's hand tighter. She smiled and leaned against my shoulder.

Ryu, you really are stupid... I'm not that impressive. I'm not anyone special. I don't have any mind reading ability or am able to control them. It has nothing to do with that. I just understand how they feel...because, Ryu.... I'm one of them...


	8. Part 8 (End of Chapter 1)

Light shined through the blackout glass door into my face, waking me up from the bar counter top I was sleeping in. Giving myself a stretch and a small crack in the neck, I slightly panicked and looked around the room before I realized where I was. The time was 6:00 am.

After Sho and I cleaned the private room, Sho decided to leave early and didn't trust Nao to come within the four hours, because he knew how overly conscious Nao could be about others' well being. So, he left me an extra key to lock up after I left and he luckily locked it on the way just in case. In the end, since Nao never came, I never really left.

I gave a large yawn and did some warm up to get my blood flowing.

Since it's still the weekend, I decided to just do some early set up real quick until the other hosts came by and I would take my leave to wash up. Memories of back when I was with Grandma flowed back to me as I cleaned the tables and the entire floor of the kitchen to the main tables. I felt myself feeling almost back at home and the nostalgia continued to flow to me as I continued to clean the host club.

After a good clean to the restaurant and to my soul, I decided to research a little more of what host club is really about. Nao was right about my lack of thoughts in the action I take. I don't even know that much about what Nao does, but maybe I should research a little more before I just continue to work here.

Wait, now that I think about it, am I even working here? Wasn't I supposed to meet up with Kyo to get some food? How did I end up getting side tracked again?

_UGHHHH_

Whatever, I'm going to go back to my small internet research about hosts.

I feel like my soul's been sucked out of me. I want to rest for today, but I still have some customers I have to deal with. Maybe I should get a day off, but I have to keep up with my ranking if I want to continue to get paid more. You know what, I really need to push the other hosts to report back on their activities with customers, to figure out why the rankings haven't been changing as much...

Ahh, Boss, I hope you're doing well at the hospital. I don't get why you left me in charge, but I don't think I'm cut out for this after all.

Last night, I ended up helping the bodyguards take her up to her hotel room and held her hand all the way up to her room. I should have left by then, but I think my drunk and tired state didn't allow me to think straight. I decided to continue to stay by Ms. Walter's side, sitting near by her and accidentally fell asleep in the chair.

When I woke up, I immediately jumped out of the bed to realize where I was. The time was 6:00 am.

Ms. Walter was already dressed up to work. As she continued to fix her earring in, she smiled at me and said, "The driver will be waiting for you out in the front, just tell him where you need to go."

After pushing myself off the bed, I stood up and said, "Thank you for your generosity, Kate. I hope you had a great time last night and I hope we meet again."

She turned around and walked up to me. Having my guard down, I ended up flinching and forgot to keep my face straight. She went in closer towards my face.

I closed my eyes to feel an impact, but when I opened my eyes, she stood up from the bed with her briefcase in her hand. She gave a small giggle and waved her hand before she walked out of the hotel room, leaving me in my embarrassed and smelly state.

I cleaned myself up real quick in the hotel room and got the driver to drop me off at a convenience store nearby to get some bottled water, stomach medicine and pain relievers. After all that, I still ended up walking back to the host club.

Now, I took my spare key and opened up the club, finding the place in the cleanest state I've ever seen in my time working here. Kind of shocked, I went back out of the club to check if I was in the right place only to come back to realize it was.

_Yep, this is definitely not Sho's work. That lazy bartender would dream he was this clean._

I ended up taking the medicine and jumped into the slightly hard, but bouncy couches for special guests, hidden from the doorway I had about six hours before I would have to go to my appointment, so I decided to give myself a good rest.

As I was sending messages to my upcoming and previous clients, I felt my eyelids slowly feeling heavy and I fell into a deep sleep.

After looking up a lot of different articles about host clubs, I realized how scary the job was. If I compared my simple delivery job, this career asked a lot from their employees mentally, physically and emotionally. While I didn't understand the risk for the high payment, Nao certainly made the work look easy and fun. But that might just be that Nao was good at his job, unlike someone like me who can't even help a person without them getting nervous.

I sighed and thought about my experience during this night. It felt almost unreal how Nao allowed me to see him work in person. I hope that even if I can't be the greatest host in the country, I can at least gain some skills from helping Nao.

I stood up from my chair and walked out of the kitchen. Trying not to make too loud of a noise, I found something that I knew I never wanted to disrupt.

I creeped up as close as I could without making any noise. Just like those animal documentaries I watched with that famous Australian alligator wrestler, I observed this moment as intensely as possible.

**_IT WAS A SLEEPING NAO!_ **

Trying not to panic, I stared and absorbed as much of this moment as I could. I made an escape plan, in case Nao asked why I was staring at him.

After about 15 minute, the door suddenly opened and I almost jumped from my spot. I turned to see Sho yawning with a lit cigarette in his mouth. Halfway through the door, he spit out the cigarette and stepped on it before walking in.

"Oh, Ryu, what-"

I frantically waved my hands in the air and placed my index finger over my mouth. Sho, still confused, he walked over to me and stared over where I was pointing. He gave a wide smile like someone who was scheming to something evil.

Almost as if I was reading his mind, I shook my head at him to try to prevent him from doing anything that would piss Nao off. As I was shaking my head, Sho ignored what I said and went into the kitchen. Suddenly, Sho came out with a can of whipped cream and a small piece of feather from a nearby couch pillow. When he was approaching Nao, I kept pushing him back.

"Sho, please don't do-"

"Ryu, come on, this is going to be so funny."

"No, Sho, he's going to kill us."

"That baby is going to kill us? Ha, in your dream. Let me just do this once and I'll never do it, pleaseeeee?"

I breathe in heavily and let out a heavy sigh.

"Fine, but don't drag me in when he yells at you."

As Sho quietly placed the whip cream on Nao's open left hand, he took out his phone camera. I covered my face with both my hands and just slightly peeked through one of my fingers. After a few seconds of anticipation, I couldn't stand back any longer.

"Actually, Ryu, don't-"

Then, I smacked my leg against a chair, causing it to tip over and make a loud noise that echoed throughout the room. Sho and I froze.

Slowly, we moved our head over to Nao and saw that Nao begin shifting forward. He brought his hand to rub his eyes, only to find whipped cream to be all over his face. Nao immediately became wide awake and looked around to figure out where the whip cream came from. After a small wipe from his face, he saw Sho and I frozen in place.

Sho suddenly jolted up and noticed he forgot to record, quietly saying, "Shit."

"SHOOOOOOOO!"

Nao jumped towards Sho's neck, but Sho continued to keep the camera phone rolling and made sure to get Nao's creamed face in the photo.

Dodging Nao's attack, Sho would use the table and chairs to slow him down.

Nao turned to me witnessing all this happen and shouted, "RYU, HELP ME!"

Without a second thought, I grabbed Sho from the back and Sho tried to kick himself out of my arm with no avail.

"Ryu, you traitor! I thought we were bros! You were even a witness to my crime!"

I stared at him with no emotion and said, "Sorry, Sho, you brought this fate on yourself."

Nao poured as much whipped cream into his left hand. As he was about to prepare this horrible fate onto Sho, he split the cream into both his hands. Before I noticed what was about to happen, he smacked it hard into both of our faces. I let Sho go, dropping him onto the ground, and rubbing the cream off my face.

Yeah I kind of deserve that.

Sho stood up quickly and started yelling at Nao. "Yo! What the hell? Why'd you have to smack us so hard?"

Nao walked up to Sho and grabbed his collar.

"Delete the photo or I'll make sure you won't even be able to feel your face anymore."

Sho started manically laughing and looked at Nao with a satisfied smile.

"W-what the hell did you do, Sho?"

"Sorry, but it's already too late! I posted it on our restaurant's twitter! MWHAHAHAH!"

"YOU BASTARD!"

Nao grabbed Sho's phone and dropped to the ground in defeat. I brought my phone out and looked up the twitter page for the restaurant. I was quite impressed how the post already had 20 likes and 12 retweets within this few minutes. It was trending quite quickly among the fan community for Nao.

Sho raised his nose proudly to the air and said, "I guess that yours truly is a media genius and your popularity is that much higher, PRINCE NAO!"

Sho continued to maniacally laugh as he walked away to the kitchen. I walked over to Nao and placed my hand on his shoulder, causing Nao to look up at my whipped cream face.

I gave a big smile and a thumbs up, saying "You look really handsome in the video, Nao!"

Nao's eyes turned incredibly big and he started pouting at my comment. He looked like he didn't know whether he should be crying or feeling proud. He gave a large sigh and finally stood up from the ground. Nao pushed his hair back and looked down at me with an aloof expression.

"Sure, whatever."

I couldn't help but continue to smile at Nao. 

Man, he really knows how to make an impression!


End file.
